Film study: Jehu Chesson has the talent to produce for Chiefs in 2017

With all of the hype surrounding the Chiefs’ 2017 draft, I feel like fourth-round pick Jehu Chesson has quickly fallen under the radar.

Sure, we’re excited about Patrick Mahomes as Kansas City’s quarterback of the future, and we’re eager to see what kind of impact defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon and running back Kareem Hunt can make during their rookie seasons.

But after watching Chesson’s film, I feel like the Michigan receiver may be able to do some damage in 2017.

At first I wasn’t super high on the pick because of my lack of knowledge on Chesson, paired with the fact that he’s not terribly fast or super strong. I felt there were better receivers Kansas City could have taken in round four.

Following a session with Chesson’s film, I no longer feel that’s the case.

Blocking ability

The first game of Chesson’s I watched was his matchup against Florida in the Citrus Bowl from two years ago. That was a great game to start out with.

At first I noticed the little things, like how Chesson is an ambitious blocker on offense. He may not always be the strongest and at times doesn’t use the proper technique when blocking, but he’s always looking to throw a block.

It doesn’t seem like Chesson takes plays off. Instead, when he sees his teammate making a catch or the quarterback running, he immediately turns his head and goes after the nearest defender.

This play above is a run play, so it’s designed for Chesson to block. Regardless of whether the defender is stronger than him, Chesson is still going to take him on with ferocity.

There were a few occasions I noticed Chesson use his shoulder to block instead of his hands or upper body, so that’s a tendency he’ll need to clear up at the pro level. Since I expect him to start out on special teams, he’ll have plenty of time to work with the coaches on that. (We’ll talk more about special teams later.)

This next video (above) is a prime example of what I was talking about with Chesson looking for blocks. He goes out for a pass here but QB Jake Rudock chooses to take off and run. Chesson immediately turns around and looks for a guy to hit to make way for Rudock.

Deep ball potential

Chesson ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash at the combine. That’s not bad by any means as it was better than more than half of the receivers that showed up. However, it’s not exceptionally fast either.

Due to Chesson’s 40 time, I assumed he wouldn’t exactly be a burner, but I ended up finding the opposite was true. Chesson doesn’t have a huge amount of burst, but once he gets going he can flat out go.

Check out this clip above where Chesson straight up burns cornerback Vernon Hargreaves, who now plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and ran a 4.5-second 40-yard dash. Chesson beat Hargreaves all day during this game.

Here’s another example below:

And this one as well:

In this clip above, Chesson completely fakes out Hargreaves causing him to jump the route. This speaks to Chesson’s precise route-running ability. We’ll move on to that next.

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